Technical Field
The present invention relates to a vehicle location correction apparatus for determining a road on which a vehicle carrying the apparatus is traveling based on a detected location of the vehicle, and correcting the detected location of the vehicle to a proper location on the road.
Related Art
A known apparatus for correcting a location of a vehicle carrying the apparatus, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2009-41988, is configured to generate trajectory data using coordinates of the location measured by a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver for a past predetermined period of time, compare the trajectory data and map data, and based on the comparison, estimate a road correlating to a movement trajectory of the GPS receiver as a road on which a vehicle carrying the apparatus is traveling. Such a road will be referred to as a traveled road.
The above known vehicle location correction apparatus is configured to estimate bias errors in location coordinates measured by the GPS receiver by comparing location coordinates of the trajectory data and the estimated traveled road, and using the estimated bias errors, correct the location coordinates of the vehicle measured by the GPS receiver (i.e., the location of the vehicle).
The above known vehicle location correction apparatus estimates a road that geometrically matches the movement trajectory of the GPS receiver to calculate the bias errors. With this configuration, the above vehicle location correction apparatus can correct the location of the vehicle onto the traveled road. However, in the case of the traveled road having multiple lanes, the apparatus is unable to determine which lane of the traveled road the vehicle is traveling in.
Thus, the above known vehicle location correction apparatus may not be able to provide adequate accuracy of a location of the vehicle carrying the apparatus, For instance, when the vehicle is automatically driven along a target trajectory generated by the apparatus, the vehicle can not always be driven in an optimal one of the multiple lanes.
In consideration of the foregoing, exemplary embodiments of the present invention are directed to providing techniques for determining which lane of a road having multiple lanes a vehicle is traveling in and thereby more accurately correcting a location of the vehicle.